Steven Lowy and new FFA board need to set agenda from the kick-off

Inspiration. That is what the game needs from Steven Lowy and his new board, who meet for the first time on Monday. Now is the perfect time to reset the agenda.

It is not just about the matters at hand. We will get to them in a moment. It is about the intangibles. Excitement. Hope. Confidence. Belief. The feelings which flow from strong leadership. On many levels, the rank and file are losing faith in Football Federation Australia. Lowy needs to hit the ground running to not only prove he is the man for the job, but show it. It is not a bad idea for the General to get out into the battlefield and rally his troops.

Plenty to discuss: New FFA chairman Steven Lowy meets his board for the first time on Monday. Photo: Getty Images

So what are the priorities for the new board at its first proper meeting? In no particular order, they are:

Who to support in the forthcoming FIFA presidential election?

The FFA backed Sepp Blatter in 2011, and Jordanian royal Prince Ali in last year's farcical election, which was overshadowed by the dawn arrests of several prominent officials at their luxury Zurich hotel. FIFA has virtually unravelled since, and the February 26 election is seen by many as re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Nonetheless, the FFA will have to choose a candidate, and the choice is whether to maintain support for Prince Ali, who presents himself as a reformist, or back Bahraini royal Sheikh Salman, who is also president of Asia. Sheikh Salman is the politically expedient choice, and the suspicion is Lowy will take the pragmatic approach.

A Future Fund

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Under Frank Lowy, the FFA ran a tight ship financially, and you would expect his son to be cut from the same cloth. The trouble is, important strategic decisions have been delayed, or buried, as a result. A Future Fund - which according to some estimates could yield up to $158million for the game within five years - would provide a bank for football to make key strategic moves at the right time, and at the right pace. The issue is it would have to be managed as a trust, separate from the FFA. It is believed Frank Lowy vetoed the idea in the past.

Funding the first phase of the Whole of Football Plan

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See above. No, seriously, it is believed a four or five-year business plan will be presented to fund some of the key tenets of the WOF, which was released last May. The recurring question at the launch was: "How are you going to pay for it?". Now is the time for a board dominated by bankers to come up with the cash, or the Future Fund option becomes irresistible. Among the targets of the WOF are building the national academy program, lowering the cost of playing and coaching licenses, bidding for the 2023 Women's World Cup, having one million A-League members by 2035, having 15 million members of the football 'family' by the same time, and accrediting 3,800 new coaches each year. Expensive stuff.

A new broadcast deal

Again, it is all about money. The current Fox Sports/SBS deal expires next year, and David Gallop believes he can double the rights to $80million per year. A-League owners will certainly hold him to account. Free-to-air networks Nine and Ten are believed to be interested. Whether they want to separate the Socceroos from the A-League remains to be seen. The board has employed a British consulting firm to steer the negotiations, and the hope is a new deal can be stitched up before the start of next season, around nine months early.

Dealing with the hooligan fringe

The propaganda battle between the game's authorities and the lunatic element has swung the way of the FFA after recent events in Melbourne, but the board still seems likely to agree to concessions in the banning process. In future, fans who are under threat of a ban will at least be informed of their situation, and then given a one-week right of reply. An appeals process is also likely to be established.

Two crucial issues which the public would love to get direction from the board on are A-League expansion, and a pathway for NPL clubs. Whether the board discusses these matters remains to be seen.